Idraya

Idraya Horton

Appearance:

Abilities

Charm

Sexy Bitch

Mental Strength

Puppet Master

Nosey Parker

Hold Tongue

Mental Blade

Read Mind/Sense Emotion

History

Idraya Horton was born in 1872, New York to a wealthy shipping magnate, Arthur Horton and his wife Rose. Sadly, Rose died in child birth leaving Arthur to raise his only child and daughter himself. Despite the fact that he was, at times a hard and ruthless man (especially when it came to business) Arthur loved Rose and his daughter with the passion he didn’t give to the rest of the world.p.

An intelligent man himself, he believed stupidity was a sin never to be tolerated or ever endured and so set about educating his daughter. Young Idraya reveled in the challenge, enjoying her tutorials far more than she ever did such things as
crossstiching and other expected activities. This defying of the norm was to become convention. Delighting in her sharp mind, and doting on her as no other in his life, Arthur came to the decision that she would be his heir. Telling people who raised an eyebrow “I’m loyal to my Rose, there will be no son. Family is important, family demands respect, and I respect my Idraya enough to give her this, rather than let it pass off to some pandering stranger!…why, she’s probably worth six of your spoiled foolish sons!” So being said he groomed her in all aspects of the business, and by the time she was 28, Idraya was an equal partner in The Black Ball Shipping Company.p.

By 1900 , between them Idraya and Arthur Horton were running one of the most successful shipping companies out of New York, shipping in everything from Cotton to Immigrants. At this time, New York was one of the largest ports in America, and with the advent of steamships 40 years before it was become increasingly competitive amongst those who could afford the new technology.p.

One of The Black Ball’s biggest competitors was a company call The Star, owned by a man named Nickolas Finkel. Arthur and Finkel had started out as friendly rivals but five years in, it turned nasty. The turn, initially, was caused by Finkel, who thought it a good notion to ask for Idraya’s hand in marriage. Arthur however, was unimpressed with this offer, reading it correctly as an unsubtle attempt to inherit. Yet it was Horton’s response to the proposal that firmly drove the wedge between the two men. After firmly rejecting the offer, Arthur promptly used all his influence to steal The Star’s three largest contracts and bribed the port authorities to mysteriously lose the stars operating license for at least two of its docks, causing yet more loss of business. At this time, this was almost enough to drive Nickolas into insolvency, he was a canny business man nonetheless and so was able to turn it around. p.

For the next five years Finkel waged war against the Hortons. Though no matter what he did, Arthur and Idraya together managed to outwit, out manage and out maneuver him. To add insult to Nickolas’s mounting fury the Horton’s appeared to remain impassive and unaffected by his attempts, acting as if it was a mere nothing.

p.

Finkel did not take disgrace well. He was in fact vampire, a Cuchillo at that and as a Cuchillo, what he wanted he got. In 1910 he took what he wanted.His plan was to destroy the Horton’s and he had soon realised the destruction of the daughter would be the downfall of the farther.p.

Nickolas made his move at Henry Applecross’s Annual Cocktail Party. It was one of the many social gatherings that regularly took place amongst the elite- the business men, the traders and various officials. As usual it had people dressed to the nines, talking about the state of the world , while at the same time subtlety conducting business transactions. Arthur had long ago stopped going to such things, finding them tedious. After all, what was the point of having an attractive smart daughter if not to send her in his stead to beguile the unwary?p.

During the course of the evening Nickolas, managed to get Idraya alone where apon he bit and drained her. It is unclear as to his intentions, but for whatever reason he did not drain her entirely, merely enough to set her in deep unconsciousness, perhaps he was interrupted, perhaps he was intrigued as to what might happen, perhaps he wanted her to suffer. Either way she was left alive and hanging fiercely to the edge of life, determinedly fighting to thwart Finkel’s plans, this would not be her end and nor would it. Nickolas Finkel carried the vampire virus, highly contagious and deadly. However, on occasion, not often but sometimes, it didn’t kill but saved. Idraya started to turn even in her unconscious state, causing her heart beat and breathing to drop even lower, till they were so soft and low they were almost unidentifiable.p.

This is how she was found. It is unfortunate that she was stumbled apon less than an hour after it all began. Donald Proft, a shakey nervous man found her while her heart beat was at its lowest and after a quick fumbling check of her pulse, instantly let out the startled cry of “She’s Dead! She’s Dead!” After all she looked dead enough, white and limp with blood running from her neck. This of course drew other guests like flies to a corpse, the new arrivals hurried to double check but they too rushed, only haphazardly checking -confirming what they had been told.
Her unfortunate luck continued as on that night Ben Whoolly , a photographer from The New York Times was in attendance(he’d brought his camera as the Mayor was going to use the event to announce a donation to restore the waifies resthouse) Hearing the ever growing murmur of “Idraya Horton’s been murdered!” He soon leapt to the scene snapping off some pictures before anyone could stop him. Now the crowed was larger people were shouting to call the police, all except Mr Nickolas Finkel, who stood in the growing crowd watching her body intently.p.

So it was, that next day when Idraya woke she was in the morgue, with Nickolas slouched in a chair reading a Newspaper with a photograph of her dead body on the cover.
TBC.